Rissa and Tregare Read Online Free PDF

Liesel poured for each and raised her glass. "Here's to people who try to know what they're doing!"
    The four touched glasses; Rissa drained hers in one gulp. Setting it down, she said, "I know what / am doing, this minute-I am going to bed."
    Upstairs she lay awake awhile, thinking, testing her feelings. Yes, now she was free of it. Her thoughts turned to her prob-lem with Tregare, but before she could form it clearly, fatigue struck. She sighed and relaxed and let sleep come. next morning, seeking Ernol, she snacked in the kitchen. He did not appear, but she learned where he was working-a room on the Lodge's main corridor. She found the door slightly ajar but rapped on it anyway.
    "Come in!" She entered; Ernol rose behind his desk. "Good morning. How do you like my office?" He moved another chair near the desk; both sat. "I'm learning so much so fast-I just hope I don't forget half of it."
    "You wil manage, and I am glad for you. Ernol, I have had no chance to thank you for-for catching the knife. But I do thank you-though not now in the way I had intended."
    "You had?" He grinned, then sobered. "Yes-as things are-wel, I'l take word for deed and glad to have it." He paused, watching her. She said, "Yesterday-I am sorry I interrupted you, but the gate was not closed." He laughed. "Oh, you didn't interrupt-just startled us. If you'd stayed, we'd have stopped, of course, out of courtesy."
    "I hoped you had not seen me, either of you. But Sparline reassured me that I did not offend."
    "What else-if it's all right to say-did she tell you?"
    He is putting me in the middle-I must not allow that. "We talked of . . . several things. Perhaps you should ask more specifically."
    His hands clenched together. "It's the business of marriage. Being lovers-maybe she told you-doesn't affect my work, with the others here. But if we marry-she wants to and peace knows I'll do whatever she wants-it'll be said I did it for status. I'd be caught up in house-politics. Wel, I wouldn't like that but I could put up with it-for me. But-you see-it's insult to her, too." He freed his hands from each other and spread them wide.
    "Yes, Ernol-I see that."
    "The truth is, if she weren't the woman she is, I wouldn't marry her for al the status on this world." Hands now flat on the desk, he leaned forward. "You believe that?"
    "I believe it." She decided, and spoke. "What Sparline told me is that while she does wish marriage, Liesel must not know of that wish until you have had time to prove your worth to Hulzein Lodge more fuly. Does this satisfy your concern?" His breath came out in a huge sigh. "Then she does under-stand-I hadn't been sure, quite. Thank you, Ms. Obrigo." 
    "I am sure you call Sparline by her first name, in private. Why not me, also?"
    "All right, then-thanks, Tari." The name startled her; then she realized Ernol had heard no other. The correction could wait.
    "No need-I am still in your debt-but welcome." She rose. "And I must not keep you longer from your work." She left him and walked a few minutes outdoors, before returning to her room and the never-ending mass of business papers waiting there. As usual, she became absorbed in the facts the dry figures conveyed, and would have read through lunchtime had Liesel not caled by intercom.
    downstairs she found Liesel picking at a large snack tray. "Not much appetite, today. You want to order something more solid?"
    "Thank you, no. This wil do for me, also." She ate slowly and said litle.
    Once Liesel said, "What do you think-" and stopped.
    "Of what?"
    "No-that one I have to figure out for myself, I guess."
    "If you do not share it, then I suppose you do."
    "Later, maybe I wil." The words were unclear, but Rissa thought she understood. Then Liesel said, "You're going with Bran soon-to his base across the Hils?"
    "Yes, but I do not know how soon."
    "Or how long you'll stay?" Rissa shook her head. "Then most likely you'l miss the next Board meeting of Bleeker, Ltd. Wil you give me your proxy,